Starcadian

Earlier in the week, after his stunning Touch Tone reMix, we promised you a more in depth look at Brooklyn based producer Starcadian. And, now is as good a time as any, with the recent release of his new video making some waves. The track is called ‘Heˆrt’ and it’s a perfect example of Sarcadian’s lush retro synth work. Combining both the groovy and the emotional, his laid back beat and electric piano lament underpin a subtly vocoded galactic love song. Here we have a jaw-droppingly good mixture of SynthWave and Disco that has been pulled back into a ballad that really highlight Starcadian;s talents ad both songwriter and musician. The video too has been getting a bit of attention, and ‘80’as Sci-Fi extravaganza. Reminiscant of post-Star Wars straight-to-video movies, the clip captures the loneliness of deep space and melds with the tune as if they were always meant to be.

Hopefully, that’s whetted your appetite, for more Starcadian. And it should, the rest is just as good. Borrowing heavily fro ‘80’s movie soundtracks, Starcadian sets himself apart from the a lot of the SynthWave crowd in a few ways. His a lot more skilled in the Disco end of things, and he tends to be a lot more ‘song’ oriented. Take ‘Girls At Midnight’ what begins at the most haunting of VHS horror soundtracks effortlessly becomes one of the best Nu-Disco tinged ElectroPop tracks I’ve heard for a while, with some frantic playing in the crescendo. ‘Ronnie’ brings the vocoder back into focus for a slick slice of DiscoPop, whist keeping that retro SynthWave feel and injecting an added bit of Funk in the form of some jazzy electric piano before going all out of a seriously stratospheric synth solo. ‘Firat Kill’ sees a different side to Starcadian, for want of a better word is a full on Disco-House banger loaded with mashed up acapellas in ways that make them sound they should have always been there.

♫ Starcadian – Girls Of Midnight

♫ Starcadian – Ronnie

♫ Starcadian – First Kill

I seriously can’t recommend Starcadian enough.

Starcadian’s singles are out now.

Buy Starcadian’s music from:

Arsenal, Com Truise & Joakim

Arsenal

Belgian duo Arsenal’s new single arrives next week. We first featured these guys back in May 2010 and since then they’ve released a stray stream of pumping House tunes. Following on on from deep vocal House of ‘Melvin’, the new single ‘One Day At a Time’ features Mike Ladd on vocals and is loaded with some class choices in reMix talent including two of our top producers, Com Truise & Joakim.

Com Truise is, like, the public face of SynthWave. The SynthWave artist it’s cool for your Indie friends to like. So flying the flag for all things retro Electro, we always pay special attention to his tracks, and they are always mind-blowingly good. His mix of ‘One Day At a Time’ is no different. In fact it’s the highlight of the reMixes, with a funkin’ analog bassline and sweeping synths Com Truise turns the Housey vocal into something a bit more New Wave. Electro toms are just the icing on the cake in this track which boarders on electronic Soul at times. Joakim’s effort is a more sunrise affair, a bit Balearic, a bit Tropical, but with a unique rawness to it and an infectious ringing hook. The ‘One Day At  A Time’ collection also comes with Joakim’s ‘Dub’ and a version from JD Twitch Optimo, an excellent package.

♫ Arsenal – One Day At A Time (Com Truise reMix)

♫ Arsenal – One Day At A Time (Joakim reMix)

‘One Day At A Time’ is out this week.

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Ryan Riot’s ‘Almost Summer’ mixtape

ryan-riot

Ryan Riot – Almost Summer = Ryan Riot’s new mixtape is called ‘Almost Summer’. Well, he’s not wrong, it is almost summer. Maybe if we chill to his awesome collection of current Nu-Disco monsters, close out eyes and wish hard enough, summer might just be that little bit closer.

Ryan Riot – Almost Summer

The tracklist:

01.  Alex Sadman – Let Go (Dub Version)
02. Stuck In The Sound – Brother (Yuksek reMix)
03. Moonlight Matters – Come For Me (Punks Jump Up reMix)
04. Logo – Jacob (Original Mix)
05. Friends – Friends Crush (Jake Bullit reMix)
06. Hoaxx – Prophecy
07. A.N.D.Y. & Vicente – Traffic (Original Mix)
08. Psychemagik – Valley Of Paradise (Rayko reMix)
09. Surkin (Feat. Bobmo) – Harry
10. Adamski – I Like It (Original Mix)
11. XXXChange – Backbeat
12. Kris Menace – We Are (RESET! reMix)
13. Future Flashs & Dare2Disco – Daft Drive (Milk Drinkers reMix)
14. Ryan Riot – Loading Procedure (Original Mix)
15. Simian Mobile Disco – Put Your Hands Together
16. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – American Dream Part II

Check out more from Ryan Riot on SoundCloud.

Lueur Verte reMixes DiscoRazor

DiscoRazor

Out this week is the new single from French SynthWave/Nu-Disco producer DiscoRazor, Golden Night’. Alongside reMixes from Judgement Dernier and Paul! you’ll find this tasty mix from the one and only Lueur Verte.

Lueur Verte brings his typical style of powerful, driven SynthWave to the track with a track worthy of soundtracking the most climactic of action sequences in the best of ‘80’s cinema. With a sense of urgency the track rolls forward, carried along by a punchy Italo bassline and some starlight synths. There’s a nice bit of digital guitar in there too to give the track some oomph, but ultimately the track wins out through Lueur Verte vintage sound and his attention to melody. The Frenchman keeps getting better and better.

♫ DiscoRazor – Golden Night (Lueur Verte reMix)

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Touch Tone reMixed by Starcadian

touch-tone

I must be so predictable, hehe. Touch Tone dropped me an email introducing me to Brooklyn producer Starcadian who has just reMixed his new single ‘Home away From Home’, he said he thought Starcadian was right up my street, both musically and aesthetically, Sweet Raptor Jesus was he ever right.

I don’t want to to talk too much about Starcadian specifically right now, I’ve already decided he gets an article to himself later in the week, but let’s just easy you into the Starcadian groove with the aforementioned reMix.His reMix of ‘Home Away From Home’ is pretty much a melting pot of everything we think is awesome. It is, at it’s core, SynthWave, epic retro soundtrack stuff, but with more of a gritty vibe, a more (dare I say it, Brooklyn?) Lo-Fi productions style that accentuates the vintage sound and give the music warmth. It’s also got a bit more Funk than your average SynthWave with a dirty Moog tone to it. The end result is a danceable, dreamy electronic space-Disco odyssey. So, to recap; SynthWave, Lo-Fi grit, Moog Funk plus Touch Tone’s amazing, anthemic, song. I never stood a chance.

Touch Tone – Home Away From Home (Starcadian reMix)

Touch Tone’s ‘Home Away From Home’ is out now on Binary. We’ll be featuring more from Starcadian later in the week.

Buy Touch Tone’s music from:

Kavinsky & Tommy

Kavinsky

Despite a resurgence of interest in it after it’s prominence on the ‘Drive ‘soundtrack, Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ is getting on a bit now, so I have to ask, “do we really need any more remixes of it, especially as when it was first released there was a remix competition?” Well SynthWave producer Tommy has answered that question, and surprisingly the answer is “yes!”.

The German SynthWave genius has created possibly the most beautiful reMix of this track we have ever heard. Subtly changing the lead riff and the progression in ways that, at times, make it feel like a brand new song. “A new lease of life” is a phrase that gets thrown around by people talking about reMixes all too often to the point where it becomes meaningless, but Tommy really does give ‘Nightcall’ a new lease of life. The track becomes slightly more uplifting musically, whist retaining the mid-tempo groove, a lot of the originals darkness is replaced with a more optimistic set of chords, which in turn seems to lift the amazing Lovefoxxx‘s vocals to an altogether poppier place. This track is the dawn to Kavinsky’s midnight.

Kavinsky (Feat. Lovefoxxx From CSS) – Nightcall (Tommy reMix)

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Pilotpriest’s ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’

Pilotpriest

Pilotpriest, an artist we were only vaguely familiar with, sent us an album with twenty five tracks on it. That kind of thing tends to make us shudder a little, but we had some stuff to do so we stuck it on. Two hours later we’d got nothing done, wondered where the time had flow off too, and were in love with Pilotpriest’s ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’. Yes, you read that right, two hours! It’s a rare best that is that kind of length and at no point at all gets anywhere close to boring. I’m not overly sure how easy this album is going to be to review, it really is one of these records that has to be heard, I can imagine everyone taking something different from it and the overall work truly is an experience, one that has to be had, not read about. No writing I can do will do the experience of listening to this album Justice. It’s not just a collection of songs, it’s a narrative, it’s an artwork, and your relationship to it will be different to mine.

After a bit of digging around it turns out we were familiar with Pilotpriest! Do you remember ‘The Crash’? That ‘leaked’ track from from Daft Punk’s ‘Tron: Legacy’ soundtrack, that Kanye West raved about thatwas quickly proven to be a fake, but we said we liked it anyway? Well that was him. Whist the ‘leak’ was cheeky, Pilotpriest hides behind nothing on his new record, and he would have no need to, it’s an electronic masterpiece, a couple of hours of pure bliss for an fan of synthesizer music. ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ is a collection of instrumental electronic peices, some leaning toward experimental Sci-Fi compositions, some Disco tinged dancefloor tunes, all of them named after ‘80’s movie titles. The albums opener ‘Body Double’ is a twelve minute opus that lays down the law in regard s to what to expect from the album. Layers and Layers of analog synths, intertwining melodies, emotionally resonant chord progressions and a nod toward Italo dancefloors via a driving beat and bassline. The thread here, on such a lengthy album, is Pilotpriest’s sound. Where as the individual tracks on the record play out like a movie, each one encapsulating a particular mood or a particular occurrence, they all weave together effortlessly under the umbrella of Pilotpriest’s own stylistic sonics. Drawing from ‘80’s movie soundtracks, a lot of the sounds of  Italo dancefloors and electronic instrumentalists such as Jarre or Vangelis Pilotpriest creates an analog synthesizer soundscape that is as musically rich as it is damned funky. Of course, for someone who nearly out Daft Punked Daft Punk, there is also a fairly healthy injection of French Disco in here, but while at times you can hear a Daft Punk influence, it never sounds like he’s trying to emulate them when the album does veer into Disco territory. Mostly though it’s an amazing melting pot of atmospheres ranging from high-octane to quite and introspective, a true soundtrack to any moment in life. Pilotpriest’s musically it shines through in every corner of this record, lifting it high about his peers, this record isn’t a ‘production’, it;s a work of art. If you like soundtracks, you’ll love this album, if you like Disco, you’ll love this album, if you like Italo, you’ll love this album, if you like synth music, you’ll love this album. If fact, I can’t imagine anyone who reads this webzine not loving this album. Unsurprisingly, ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ comes highly recommended. Did I mention that it’s 99¢ (that’s about 68p for us in the UK)?

♫ Pilotpriest – Risky Business

♫ Pilotpriest – Thief

♫ Pilotpriest – Rad (Radwoman)

♫ Pilotpriest – After Hours (Pleasure Glove)

Pilotpriest’s ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ is out now.

Buy Pilotpriest’s music from:

New track from Daroc

Daroc

Daroc is like busses, you wait ages for new tracks then loads come at once. Luckily we can never get our fill of new Daroc tracks, especially tracks like his latest drop. In tribute to French singer, songwriter and composer Éric Charden, who passed away earlier this year.

The track is a cover of ‘La Bataille d’Albator’, Charden’s theme tune to the Captain Harlock animé series (known as ‘Albator’ in France, and a favourite of Daroc’s as a kid) and is instantly recognisable from that riff. Daroc is the perfect artist to keep the Sci-Fi feel in covering something like this, he creates a moody electronic mood that is full of exciting promise. Deep, dark, warping synth sounds counter optimistic melodies in a track that is a magical combination of French electronic music and French melody, Japanese theme structure, Futuristic SynthWave and just a hint of Disco. Daroc is on such a roll these days, we can;t wait to hear what he has in store for us next.

Daroc – La Bataille (Éric Charden Cover)

Daroc’s ‘Destination’ EP is out now, ‘Additional Wonders’ is released 7th May.

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This weeks ‘The Guestlist’ from Fear Of Tigers

Fear Of Tigers

Fear Of Tigers – The Guestlist 08/06/2012 = Your weekend starts right here with Fear Of Tigers and this weeks ‘The Guestlist’. The Neonized blog and label drop in for a chat and there’s some massive tunes, some of which you’ll find on these very pages today!

Fear Of Tigers – The Guestlist 08/06/2012

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Goldroom & Kelek

goldroom1

OK, so this is the third reMix of Goldroom and Chela’s ‘Fifteen’ we’ve featured this week, I think we’re going to tone it down a little from here on in. From now on reMixes are going to have to be pretty fucking outstanding for us to feature them, not that we wouldn’t feature anything less, but y’know, the bar for being featured has just gone up.

But we’re really diggin’ this mix from German producer Kelek. We’ve featured a few of his reMixes before, we love his slick ‘80’s Italo sound. What he’s done here that has particularly captured out imaginations is, either by chance or design, change the rhythm of the chorus. Now, most of the time when rEMix do this it;s a disaster, producers miss the ‘breath’ on the first beat or something and throw the timing off in terrible ways. Kelek’s shift of the chorus actually works though, and works well. It give the vocals a lazy drawl which kinda’ ties into the hazy reminiscent vibe of the track. Add to that Kelek’s rolling electronic track with it’s laser pads and bright lead line, it successfully captures the heart of the track, but in a very different way to the original.

Goldroom (Feat. Chela) – Fifteen (Kelek reMix)

Goldroom’s EP is out now.

Buy Goldroom’s music from: